"What it shows is promise," said Vassilis Angelopoulos, researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles and principal investigator for a new NASA mission to study auroras.

"We're coming up on a new era in space physics."

The findings were presented at a teleconference today at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Perfect Storm

The latest discoveries began on March 23, when a "substorm" erupted over Alaska and Canada, producing vivid auroras for more than two hours.
During such an event, the northern lights' green and white streaks periodically build in intensity until they blast apart into multicolored, fragmented lights.